Trakkit.org is the frontend of a track rendering engine designed for recreational and sailing boats. It helps you create, display, and share navigation tracks. Once rendered, these tracks can be embedded in apps, websites, or accessed through a regular internet link. By sending timed email positions with devices such as Iridium Go, you can get live tracking of your boat to share with your friends.


Trakkit.org does not use personal data. Nevertheless, please be mindful of what you share and consider the potential consequences of disclosing location-related data.


How does it work ?


Send your GPS positions with your Iridium Go to spool@trakkit.org, define a track with a start date and end date, and share this track with the link https://trakkit.org/ttr/<YOUR_TTR> where <YOUR_TTR> is the ID of the track (see your track list). You can also upload afterward a full GPX or NMEA file.


NB : Trakkit.org was initially designed to utilize the Iridium Go feature to send timed GPS position emails. However, it can work with any device capable of sending an email with your GPS position.


QuickStart :


  1. Create an account (free).

  2. Create a boat (simply provide the name).

  3. Upload data (from an old GPX file you've saved somewhere).

  4. Add a track (specify a starting and ending date).

  5. Obtain the TTR ID and view or share your track.

General Documentation :


Everything on trakkit.org is based on Boat, Tracks, and Data.

Data is attached to a Boat, and Tracks are segments of Data with a starting date and an ending date.


When creating an account, a set of test boat, data, and track is generated to help you become familiar with trakkit.org. Once you are comfortable with trakkit.org, simply delete the test boat and create your own. The related test tracks and Data will be automatically deleted.


A Track is a view of Data between a starting date ans an ending date.

Various Tracks can share the same Data.


Data are just a collection of GPS points and some other informations as AWA AWS etc. for a boat.

1 USER can have multiple Boats, but 1 boat can be owned by only 1 user

1 boat can have as many tracks as you want.


When uploading GPX files, the tracks already declared in the file are taken into account, and the associated tracks are automatically created. (Note that you must have at least 1 boat declared)


Boat :


All start here…. You must have at least one Boat declared. Just give at least the name of your BOAT. You can declare multiple boats attached to your account. If you have only one boat, it is a good practice to attach your email to your boat when creating it. This allows Trakkit.org to match your boat and your data when sending data by mail.. The Info field is just for information for you and is not used by Trakkit


Data:


Data consists of GPS positions and other information sorted chronologically for a given boat. It can come from various sources (see Data Feeding), and Data from the same voyage can be uploaded at different times. Typically, you can send position emails during your navigation for live Tracksing to save bandwidth, and upload the full NMEA-VDR files to obtain information such as AWS, AWA etc.

Unlike most Tracksing apps, it's important to understand that there's no direct link between Tracks and Data. The Data consists of GPS points for a boat, and a Tracks is simply a visualization of this set of Data. Various Tracks can share the same set of Data and can overlay. Deleting a Tracks does not delete the Data associated with it. Data for a Tracks can come from various sources.


Data feeding :

There are two ways to update your boat Database:


1- Direct Upload of files on trakkit.org: Accepted file formats include GPX or NMEA (also known as VDR). You can compress them using Zip, Gzip, 7zip or send a Tarfile with an archive of multiple files.


2- By email at spool@trakkit.org : You can send a regular email with your GPS position in the body of the message, similar to how it is done with an Iridium Go, or you can send one or multiple file attached.

The accepted file formats are the same as those allowed for direct upload.

To allow Trakkit to know which boat the sent data belongs to, you must first declare the sender’s email (which can be different from your account email) in the boat configuration. Alternatively, you can choose not to declare an email but create a tag in your boat configuration and use this tag in the subject field of the emails.

The Iridium Go email format is accepted, as well as any email mentioning GPS position and timestamp in the following pattern: '1°12.123 1°12.123 2021-01-01 17:01'. The degree symbol (°) is optional, and '1 12.123' is also accepted.

Note that most mail providers limit the size of attached files to 10MB


Deleting Data :

When you delete a Track, you don’t delete the Data for that Track. To do so, you have to go to the Data-Delete menu. You can delete Data between two dates or from the batch. Each time you upload a file, you get a BatchID. By requesting to delete a BatchID, you delete only the Data uploaded with that batch. Note that if you have uploaded the same file multiple times, you have to delete all the associated BatchIDs.

Sharing Tracks :

Once you have obtained the TTR for your Tracks (refer to the Tracks list), you can display it by accessing: https://trakkit.org/ttr/<your_ttr>

You can share it 'as is' or embed it in a webpage or website.


Live Tracking :

All Tracks with an ending date in the future can be used for live Tracking. For example, define a Track from 2020-01-01 to 2050-01-01 and periodically update the Data. By accessing this Tracks, you’ll see your trace from 2020-01-01 to now with your most recent known position. Typically, Data updates are done by setting up your Iridium GO to send a position email every 3 minutes to spool@trakkit.org after declaring your Iridium email in your BOAT config. Note that other methods of Data feeding also work well.


Unlike most Tracking apps, it's important to understand that there's no direct link between Tracks and Data. The Data consists of GPS points for a boat, and a Tracks is simply a visualization of this set of Data. Various Tracks can share the same set of Data and can overlay. Deleting a Tracks does not delete the Data associated with it. Data for a Tracks can come from various sources.



Livemap :



The main goal of trakkit.org is to share your live position. To achieve this, use the livemap feature.

The livemap is a combination of a URL and a track that gets updated with each new position received. Here's how you can do it:

  1. Go to the TRACKS page and define a track with a starting date when you begin your journey and an ending date in the future (e.g., 01/01/2050).

  2. Visit the BOATS page and define a URL, for example: http://myboat.trakkit.org. Note that the URL is accessible only via HTTP, not HTTPS.

  3. On the BOATS page, select the track you created in the first step as a Livetrack.

You can then access the livemap using http://myboat.trakkit.org.

The Livemap allows access to all the tracks you've defined as 'public.' By default, a track is set to 'public.' Deselect the 'public' checkbox if you want to access it only through its TTR.


You can use the Livemap without Livetrack. Only the last known position will be displayed if no Livetracks are defined."